Gateshead sack Lee Cattermole as Ben Clark takes caretaker charge

Gateshead have dismissed manager Lee Cattermole and placed first-team coach Ben Clark in caretaker charge after a poor start to the National League season. In a statement issued on Sunday, the club confirmed that assistant manager Martin Smith would also leave immediately, with Clark taking over until further notice.

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BBC Sport reported that Gateshead are bottom of the table with four points from 12 league matches. Saturday's 2-1 home defeat by Worthing was their seventh consecutive loss across all competitions. Cattermole's record over his first 14 games in charge amounted to one victory and 11 defeats.

The dismissal ends an appointment announced on June 16, when Cattermole signed a two-year contract intended to run until 2028. Gateshead's announcement at the time described the position as his first role in senior management. He arrived with a UEFA A licence and coaching experience at several clubs.

Those previous coaching roles included work with Bristol Rovers, Burnley and Middlesbrough, as well as the Northern Irish FA, according to Gateshead. Before moving into coaching, Cattermole made 272 Premier League appearances during a playing career that took him from Middlesbrough's academy to Wigan Athletic and Sunderland.

Interim chairman Graham Wood thanked Cattermole and Smith for their work in the club's dismissal statement. Gateshead linked the decision to the sequence of results that had left the team at the bottom of the league. Clark's appointment is temporary, with no permanent successor named in that announcement.

The change in the dugout comes alongside financial uncertainty. According to BBC Sport, players and staff have still not received September's wages. Majority shareholder Mark Nellist resigned from the board last week and withdrew his funding support. He is now set to gift his shares to US-based director Stephen Paylor, subject to regulatory approval.

That proposed transfer remains uncertain. BBC Sport reported a club statement saying Paylor could not fund Gateshead alone and that a prospective co-investor's earlier interest appeared to have weakened. The club considered approval from the Independent Football Regulator unlikely in those circumstances and appealed to remaining shareholders for time to secure fresh investment.